Exorcism ritual detailed

Last updated 05:00 07/05/2009

THE ACCUSED: Top row from left: Alfred Kepa, Hall Wharepapa, accused with name suppressed, and John Rawiri. Bottom row beside Corrections officer from left: Angela Orupe, Gaylene Kepa, Aroha Wharepapa, Glenys Wright, Georgina Rawiri and Tanginoa Apanui.

Photo gallery: Makutu case accused

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CRAIG SIMCOX/The Dominion Post Zoom

Hall Jones Wharepapa, 46, is jointly charged with the manslaughter of Janet Moses.

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A teenager has told how she was pinned down, and water poured in her eyes and mouth to free her of the demon insider her.

She remembered saying, "I'm gonna die," before blanking out in a ceremony in which another person is alleged to have drowned.

One of the 14-year-old's eyes was still bandaged when she was recorded talking to police about events two days earlier on October 12, 2007, at Wainuiomata.

The recording was played in the High Court at Wellington yesterday where nine people are charged with the manslaughter of mother-of-two Janet Moses, 22, who the Crown says drowned during the same water-based exorcism ritual.

Although the girl spent five days in hospital with eye injuries and a possible lung infection she told police the people involved had not meant to harm her.

"The cold water in my eyes ... I think my, I got my injuries because it took them longer to get the demon out of me," she said.

Dr Tamsin Roberts told the court the girl's eyes were closed and swollen, oozing blood. The man who brought her to hospital told Dr Roberts a Maori ritual had taken place, someone had gouged at the girl's eyes and water was poured in her. He'd said the girl's eyes had looked different and they had to do it or she would die. It must have worked as she was still alive, he told her. Dr Roberts said she had finished work early that night because she was upset by what had happened.

Two people are charged with permitting a girl in their care to be treated cruelly.

In the interview the girl said peopleput fingers in her mouth to make her vomit the demon. She also tried to make herself sick.

She said people became concerned about Janet Moses about a week before she died. She was not responding when spoken to and did not seem to eat or sleep for about five days before the ceremony.

At the time they did not know she was sick "in the Maori belief way" that a makutu or Maori curse was making her sick. A healer said they needed to return a "taonga", a lion statue a member of the family had taken from a Wairarapa hotel, the girl said. After they did so, they returned toWainuiomata, where everyone stood around Ms Moses saying, "Go with love and peace". Later later she was held on the ground "because she was kind of fighting".

The trial continues today.

SUPPRESSION LIFTED

A judge has lifted the suppression orders that have hidden the identities of nine people charged with the exorcism manslaughter of Janet Moses since December 2007.

The accused can finally be revealed as siblings of her mother, and their partners. However the names of two people charged with cruelty to a child in their care are still suppressed to protect the identity of the girl. The charges relate to October 12, 2007, at Wainuiomata.

The manslaughter accused are: John Tahana Rawiri, 49; Georgina Aroha Rawiri, 50; Aroha Gwendoline Wharepapa, 48; Hall Jones Wharepapa, 46; Tanginoa Apanui, 42; Angela Rangiaroha Orupe, 46; Gaylene Tangiohorere Kepa, 44; Alfred Hughes Kepa, 48; and Glenys Lynette Wright, 52. John Rawiri is the brother of Ms Moses' mother. All the women charged, except Georgina Rawiri, are sisters of Ms Moses' mother.

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The Crown alleges Ms Moses drowned when water was poured into her mouth during a ceremony to free her from a Maori curse or makutu that had changed her behaviour.

- © Fairfax NZ News